A global coalition of Christian leaders came together for a 24-hour prayer event on Monday in the wake of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) sweeping crackdown on the leaders of a large Christian house church last month.

As previously reported, almost two dozen pastors and other workers associated with the 10,000-member Zion Church were arrested on October 9 across nine provinces and municipalities in China. The independent evangelical “house” church, which was not officially approved by the CCP, experienced massive growth since 2007 and came under increasing state scrutiny for resisting surveillance attempts by the communist regime. Experts say the scale and coordination of the arrests were unprecedented, which could signal the beginning of a much wider crackdown on Christian churches across China.

In response, Christian leaders and religious freedom advocates from around the world organized an “International Day of Prayer” for the Zion Church and other persecuted Christian churches. The event was initiated by ChinaAid Founder and Family Research Council Senior Fellow Bob Fu, as well as multiple other Christian organizations fighting for religious freedom in China, including Early Rain Ministry, Mayflower Church, Voice of the Martyrs Korea, and others. Participants included FRC President Tony Perkins, FRC Special Advisor for Religious Freedom Andrew Brunson, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Vicky Hartzler, former U.S. State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, former USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza, and Iran Alive Ministries Founder and President Hormoz Shariat, among others.

During the event, Perkins highlighted the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy while he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:7-9).

“We do not shrink back in any form or fashion, away from our brothers and sisters in China or anywhere else that are suffering because they’re proclaiming the name of Christ,” Perkins underscored. “Rather, we embrace them. And we thank God for them, for their testimony.”

Perkins went on to “thank the Lord for the leadership of Zion Church, for the bold declaration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not only in words, but in actions, and willing to face incarceration, face persecution for proclaiming the word. It is a challenge to the rest of the church … literally around the globe. … So we stand together in prayer.”

Pastor Andrew Brunson, who spent two years imprisoned in Turkey for evangelizing in the majority Muslim country before being released back to the U.S. in 2018, further shared about how grateful he was for the prayers of Christians in China during his imprisonment.

“When I was in prison in Turkey, I became one of the most prayed for people in the world,” he shared. “And one of the house church networks in China produced a million brochures about my imprisonment and distributed these around the church. So there were … millions of Chinese who were praying for me. And I was very grateful for this. At the same time, I thought, ‘Wait, the Chinese church has so many of its own who have been imprisoned. Why are they praying for me?’ And I was grateful.”

As Brunson went on to relate, he was greatly humbled by the heroic faith that many Chinese Christians have exhibited while in prison. “I had heard testimonies from the Chinese church, and the stories always highlighted the great courage of those who were suffering. And yes, they suffered, but I didn’t see any internal struggle, no crisis of faith while they were in prison. They just were very, very strong in the testimonies I read. I, on the other hand, was weak and broken. And so, I felt very unworthy to have Chinese believers praying for me.”

Brunson further observed that the intensity of the suffering that one must endure while being imprisoned for their faith should never be underestimated.

“I think there’s a tendency in Christian circles in the West to idealize suffering [and] persecution,” he noted. “We expect supernatural strength, supernatural joy, a strong sense of God’s presence that will just kind of [create] a bubble of grace. … And so I was very surprised when things turned out very differently, and I broke. … I was very afraid. I was isolated in my faith, the only Christian. … I had three life sentences hanging over me. And so I broke under that pressure … [but] God did rebuild my heart. Before I was released, I came out stronger. I came out with a deeper intimacy than I had before I went to prison.”

Brunson added that even for the incredibly brave Chinese Christians who are imprisoned, many have struggled. “I have talked … with Chinese leaders who’ve been in prison for their faith, and in these private conversations, some of them have shared with me that it was difficult. One of them told me, ‘Andrew, we all struggle in prison.’ So I admire the courage of these Zion leaders and … their messages from prison. They’re truly inspiring.”

Brunson closed by asking that the Lord to “use the suffering of our brothers and sisters from Zion for his purposes, for what he wants to accomplish. I do ask that God set my brothers and sisters free. I ask that God give them signs of encouragement, that they sense his presence with them through prison.”

“Father God,” he prayed, “pour out on your sons and daughters from Zion Church. Pour out on them the courage, the strength, the hope, and the confidence of Jesus. Pour into them now the perseverance and the steadfastness and endurance of Jesus. Pour into them the spirit of your son, even as they’re in prison, that they may run the race set before them and finish well, a beautiful bride, purified in the fires of faithful obedience, tested and found worthy of her beloved of Jesus, the King of Glory. Amen.”